


Resistance Is Futile (if <1 Ohm)

by A_Tomb_With_A_View



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex Mercer Has Anxiety (Julie and the Phantoms), Alive AU, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Everyone Is Alive, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, M/M, Physics major Alex, Ray and rose are the angels, Reggie Peters Has Fibromyalgia (Julie and The Phantoms), Reggie has fibromyalgia, Trevor is the devil on Alex’s shoulder, Trevor/Ray/Rose implied, art major Alex, but he is ace, he/they willie, i can’t remember if Bobby being ace is in here, i just wanted to ramble about particle physics okah, nicknames as a love language, or more accurately, petty rivalry to intense and moronic pining to lovers, she/they flynn, tw: lighthearted discussion of alcoholism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:53:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28967145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Tomb_With_A_View/pseuds/A_Tomb_With_A_View
Summary: If Alex was being honest with himself - and he wasn’t often, because time that could be spent processing his mom’s expression when he’d announced that he was gay just as she dropped him off outside the junior dorm building could also be sent processing the weird way his professor had explained the Chandrasekhar limit at the end of last semester - he kind of hated physics
Relationships: Alex & Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Carrie & Flynn & Julie & Luke & Nick & Reggie, Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Alex Mercer, Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Bobby | Trevor Wilson/Reggie Peters, Flynn/Carrie Wilson, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson (mentioned)
Comments: 36
Kudos: 153
Collections: Julie and the Phantoms Bingo Challenge





	Resistance Is Futile (if <1 Ohm)

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so, yes I was supposed to write the final hs chapter tonight, but i ended up in a rabbit hole of particle physics doing a bit of research for this and I ended up finishing this, so the hs fic will probably be finished tomorrow.  
> I apologise for the 1300 words of me rambling about bosons, I think it’s very secksey, but you may not.  
> As usual, the fibro/anxiety mild alcoholism jokes are based off me (I’m not an alcoholic dw see i designed I defined for clarity lol)  
> This also checks off the “Alive au” on my JATP bingo card :))  
> Without further ado, enjoy!

If Alex was being honest with himself - and he wasn’t often, because time that could be spent processing his mom’s expression when he’d announced that he was gay just as she dropped him off outside the junior dorm building could also be sent processing the weird way his professor had explained the Chandrasekhar limit at the end of last semester - he kind of hated physics. 

He still loved maths, and the way things just  _ worked,  _ and he liked knowing how everything was possible on such a tiny level, and when his professor had taken a lesson to unnecessarily expand on the strong nuclear force at the end of last semester, he’d been so interested that he’d gone back to his dorm and chosen to do even more research, but he hated sitting in the lecture theatre at ten am, shivering and trying to get his eyes to focus as they covered Ohm’s Law for the millionth time since sixth grade, and the lessons on électronvolts were slowly killing him. 

Starting his Junior year was scary as shit, and honestly the idea of having to pile things like figuring out what he was gonna do after Senior year and cramming in any experience he could get - internships, apprenticeships, Saturday jobs - to make himself more hireable, on top of how they’d been warned the course was gonna pick up this year, on top of getting a new roommate, because Bobby had a place ten minutes of campus and he and Reggie had finally gotten their shit together, so Alex had pushed Reggie to move in with him, was the worst combination of pressures he could imagine. Well, that as well as acknowledging out loud to his mom that he was gay which would probably result in a text coming through in the next half hour telling him he’d been disowned or something similar. 

He was ignoring that last one pretty fucking well if you asked him. 

“Hey, man, you must be Alex?” 

Alex whipped around to face the source of the voice, inevitably dropping his final box of things, textbooks and the summary notes he’d made for all the topics they’d covered in the last two years just in case something came up that he couldn’t remember covering spilling out onto the floor. 

“Shit, my bad, I’m sorry,” the person who spoke - Willie, if his email about his roommate had been correct - dropped to pick everything up. Alex shook his head, trying to control his breathing. It was fine, he’d just been spooked, no one was going to think he was an idiot, his mom wasn’t here to admonish him about embarrassing her - his mom was never going to be here to admonish him, not anymore, Jesus _Christ_ why had he thought coming out was a good idea - and he held a hand out, kneeling down. 

“Please, don’t,” he said, staring at the mess of notes that had been perfectly categorised only a minute ago until it felt slightly less like the weight of the world was pressing on his shoulders. When he looked up, he absently noted that his new roommate was quite possibly the prettiest person on the planet, but he was due at Bobby and Reggie’s in just under an hour for New Term Drinks, or whatever Luke had decided the fun name for it would be this year, and if he showed up on the verge of tears because his lever arch folder had broken under the weight of Physics: Principles of Application and now his mechanics notes were all messed up with his wavicle notes, Reggie and Julie would spend the whole night trying to convince him to move in one of them. According to them, toughing it out in the dorms like new people and small spaces and the commute didn’t mean he started every day already up to his neck in stress was dumb as fuck, especially when Bobby and Carrie’s places were both paid for by their dad, and therefore huge, and Julie and Flynn’s flat had a spare room that had been used exclusively for Luke to crash in until he’s wised up and moved to Julie’s room. 

He’s listen to them, he usually did, but, Alex’s dad had jokingly said two weeks before he’d moved out for Freshman year that they were always there for him if everything got too much for his delicate sensibilities and he could always do filing at his company. The scoreboard of Alex vs. His parents was a long one, and it would take a lifetime to catch up to the impressive score they’d tallied up over the last twenty years, but every morning that he woke up in a shitty little cubicle of a room in a single bed that had a springs poking out of it and managed to get up and make himself a shitty coffee and walk the twenty minutes to the science building to attend a lecture that would probably kill far more of his brain cells than he could afford was another little line on his half of the board. So, dorms it was. 

“No, no, it’s fine, I scared you,” Willie (?) insisted, scooping his notes together with apparently no care for the fact that he was just making the disorganisation worse. “I’ve got it.” 

“You’re-” Alex cut himself off, hands fluttering anxiously, doing his best to stop Willie messing with them without being rude. “Just let me fucking do it, okay?”

“Jeez, okay. I was just trying to help.” Willie retreated, hands up in surrender. “No need to be snappy.”

——

“He hates me,” Alex lamented into his beer four hours later, plastered against Luke’s side. “Because I was rude and horrible and I deserve it. And he’s so pretty, Bobster, you don’t even understand he’s so fucking pretty and he  _ hates  _ me. I’d hate me too.”

Bobby snorted and dropped a kiss on his forehead. “Al, you idiot, shut the fuck up. You were snappy, but you can make waffles or something in the morning, and apologise. Then he won’t hate you, okay?” 

Luke appeared on Bobby’s other side. “Reggie bet Flynn that he could do more tequila slammers in two minutes than she could, I genuinely don’t know who’ll win, but get your asses in gear, people, someone needs to be on hand to recite a Hail Mary for Reggie and his imminent liver failure.”

“Mary, mother of fucking  _ Christ _ ,” Bobby muttered, gently shoving Alex away so he could get to his feet. “Who the  _ fuck _ let my idiot near tequila?” 

Luke just shrugged helplessly. “You left Julie in charge, bro.” 

“I didn’t leave anybody in charge!” Bobby protested, easily hooking an arm around Reggie to sling him over his shoulder. It looked effortless, but Alex knew their roughhousing was carefully coordinated to be easy for Reggie to tap out of and to be as painless as possible. “I’m still in charge!” 

Reggie giggled, practically boneless over Bobby’s shoulder in a way that made Alex’s back hurt in sympathy. “Hey, hey, babe, watch, ‘m gonna beat Flynn at shots.” 

“As if,” Carrie snorted, and Alex winced internally. 

It was one thing for Reggie to challenge Flynn, and he really did have a chance, because although he was more of a cocktails guy, Reggie did tequila slammers for breakfast, and genuinely enjoyed them, which Flynn didn’t. 

It was another thing entirely when Wilson twin rivalry got brought into play. 

Luke ‘oh’ed quietly as Bobby’s eyes narrowed and he set Reggie down gently. He didn’t look away from Carrie, eyes narrowed, just patted Reggie’s cheek lightly. “If you don’t win, you’re sleeping on the couch,” he threatened lightly. 

If he’d made that joke a year ago, Reggie probably would’ve put himself in hospital trying to win just so he didn’t run the risk of exile, but now he just rolled his eyes and pressed up against Bobby’s side, coordination a little off. “Aye aye, cap’n.” 

Alex sighed, grabbing a new bottle when he went to drink from his and found it empty. “Julie…” 

“Wh’s’it?” Julie asked, slumping against his side, pink drink smelling incredibly strongly of gin. “Y’good?”

“How do I apologise to someone for something?” 

“...sometimes I think you guys are okay,” she told him sincerely, waving her glass as if to emphasis her point. “‘N then you go say somethin’ like that.” 

Alex laughed and reeled her in as Luke attempted to body slam Nick unsuccessfully. “I was mean, and I only ever apologise to you guys for being mean. Last time I apologised to Lukinald, I threw a teen girl magazine at him and said I’m sorry for calling you a fuckface, fuckface, and then we made up.” 

“What about Reg?” Julie pressed, waiting until Bobby and Carrie finally stopped shit talking each other first. “You like Reg.”

“I don’t upset Reg, because he’s my favourite, and because Beebob would skin me alive,” he reminded her. “And same for Bobman the other way round. Would be Lulu, too, but he-”

“- stole your Minnie Mouse compact mirror in third grade and told the teacher when you clocked him for it, I know.” Julie attempted to stroke his hair, but the awkward angle and six Pink Ladies she’d had turned it into a weird patting motion. 

“Bastard,” Alex mumbled, then shook his head. “Anyway, anyway. I was mean to my new roommate, and he’s so pretty, Jules, I’m gonna die, he’s so pretty, and now he probably hates me, and it’s all my fault and I don’t know how to say sorry.” 

Julie stuck her lower lip out. It really was unfair how many of his friends were able to just pull out the puppy dog eyes as and when they needed to convince him of things. “You’re gonna be fine, Allie-Cat. You’re pretty, too. He’ll love you.”

——

Willie did not love him.

He wasn’t rude or anything, but he was Alex’s third roommate in as many years, and Alex  _ knew  _ passive aggression. His handwriting was pristine, there was no way Willie was genuinely confusing which Tupperware was his that many times, and it was impossible to get gauche flecks on his astronomy notes from that angle by accident. 

Alex hadn’t had a chance to apologise before he’d returned from the night at Bobby and Reggie’s to find his kitchenware rearranged, and from then it had been  _ on.  _

Sure, Alex had been raised to be a meek and polite child who didn’t flaunt anything or answer back, but raising a child like that often really just resulted in a child with a lot of pent up anger. Reggie and Luke theorised about it a lot, about how they were all so hellbent on being people they could be proud of instead of people their parents could be proud of that they’d ended up becoming people their parents didn’t even like. Bobby and Carrie’s dad, and Julie’s parents were the only exceptions, but they were proud of all of them, and after the five minutes of resentment about how much Trevor and Rose and Ray clearly loved their kids, they’d been swept into the fold and gotten used to feeling it themselves. Trevor had not helped with Alex’s petty streak, and the time Carrie had broken his digital drum set, he’d actually helped Alex dye Carrie’s hair orange. 

He thought of Trevor now as he tapped a drumbeat on the kitchen table while Carrie eyed him suspiciously, trying to think of what Psuedo-Dad No.1 would encourage. Pseudo-Dad No.2 would tell him to apologise and bake something to drive the point home, but Ray had probably never had to deal with the burning rage that having his ginger glazed pork stolen by the most beautiful person this side of the pacific incited, so Alex pushed those suggestions aside. Pseudo-Mom would probably remind him that lashing out out of anxiety was understandable, but his roommate couldn’t have known that, and so he needed to properly explain things, and that sounded  _ way  _ too daunting, so Pseudo-Dad No.1 it was. 

Eventually, he just gave up and called home, curling up in the window seat in Carrie’s living room. “Uncle Trev?” 

“What can I do for you, kiddo?” Trevor answered immediately, and Alex could hear clattering in the background like he was frantically leaving a room.

“How do I enact revenge on my roommate? Not in such a bad way that living with them will become awful, but enough that he stops fucking with me? But also not so bad that we can’t eventually fall madly in love.” 

Trevor was silent for a moment. “Did you mean to say the last bit?” 

“I’m not ashamed,” Alex refuted, even as his cheeks heated. “They’re really pretty, even if they’re annoying is fuck, and y’know what they say. Resistance is futile.” 

“If smaller than one ohm,” Trevor finished, eye roll practically audible. “Tell me about him?”

“They’re pretty cool, when they’re not being a prick,” Alex admitted. “His art is incredible. Did I mention he’s an art major? An  _ art _ major. It’s gross.”

“Hon, you’re in a band. Julie is studying music composition, Luke only shows up to thirty percent of his music production classes.  _ I’m  _ a musician, and so is Rose. Ray is a photographer. You’ve got no place to look down on an artist just because you and most of your friends are weird academics,” Trevor reprimanded fondly.

Alex sighed. “Yeah, but he’s a  _ painter,  _ Uncle Trev. He switched my coffee mug with paint water!”

Trevor snorted. “Did your coffee have alcohol in it?” 

“...maybe? It was, like, nine pm, though, it’s legal to drink at nine pm.” Alex stretched out, letting his eyes close. 

“I like this roommate, then, the paint water was probably better for you,” Trevor joked. “Has Bobby and his biochem major taught you nothing about combining stimulants and depressants?”

“ _ So,  _ my revenge,” Alex said loudly, ignoring Trevor’s laugh. “What should I do?” 

Trevor cleared his throat, and Alex could practically see him glancing around to make sure 

Ray and Rose were out of earshot. None of any of them had any ideas what was going on between the three of them, but they’d all noted that Trevor seemed happier, and Rose and Ray seemed… not happier, exactly, but more settled, maybe? “Make food with laxatives in it? Or cayenne pepper? I’d tell you to lace it with more fun stuff, but he’s a painter, dude’s definitely doing more than you are.”

“Hey, I’m in a band,” Alex protested. “I’ve done stuff.” 

Trevor ‘tsch’ed. “Yes, yes, you’re a burgeoning alcoholic, I know, love.” 

“Only during the-“

“Term time, we’ve been through this,” Trevor agreed. “It’s still terrible, and you should stop, but I’ve seen some of your homework assignments and honestly, I’d probably do the same. Anyway, make an extra portion of lunch, put laxatives or ghost chilli or something in it, then label that. Stay the night with Bob or Care or Jules, and keep your lunch there.” 

Alex considered that for a moment. “..m’kay. Thanks, Uncle Trev.”

“No problem kid. Wanna tell me about how quarks are kicking your ass?” 

“Oh my  _ god,  _ you wouldn’t believe what my professor said last week.”

——

It didn’t get better, but it didn’t get worse, either, which Alex was taking as a win. 

Luke had warned that Willie might start seeing him as a worthy opponent and up their game, but luckily following Trevor’s advice had just led to the safety of his leftovers, and Willie clattering about a little more loudly at four am. 

“Dude, seriously, what the fuck are you doing?” Alex asked, eyes only half open, slumped heavily against his doorframe. “You’re being really loud.”

Willie shrugged, flashing Alex a grin over his shoulder that was entirely  _ unfair,  _ hair thrown into a loose bun, face speckled with paint, and a brush tucked behind his ear. “Got a two by two portrait of someone plus an emotion due in at nine. How much of an asshole do you look in this?” 

Alex choked on his tongue and shuffled forward until he could see a painting that was clearly shaping up to be him. It was odd - accurate, but somehow unflattering in a way that he couldn’t quite parse out. He did look like an asshole in it. It was annoyingly good. 

“Am I drunk in this?” He asked eventually, gaze lingering on the elasticity of his smile and slight glaze to his eyes. “I look drunk in this.”

Willie just shrugged, smile small and not as mean as Alex would’ve expected, but still hardly friendly. “I don’t know who you were trying to send it to, considering we only text things to pick up at the shops, but you sent me a selfie when you were out the other day, when you’d left all the dishes on the side, unwashed, and bam! Project idea.” They motioned to a large print out of Alex, beer in hand, in Julie’s kitchen. “I texted back to ask permission to use it and everything. You said yes.”

Alex winced. He didn’t even remember sending that. “Shit, sorry, I didn’t mean to send that.”

“I guessed.” 

There was an awkward silence where neither of them spoke, then Willie sighed. “Look, man, you can either stay, and model for me, or you can go back to bed. Put earphones in or something.”

“Right. Yeah. Sorry.” Alex nodded and pointed his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of his room. “I’m gonna-”

Willie nodded and Alex backed into his room quickly, scrabbling around for his phone as soon as the door was shut. “Band emergency,” he whispered as soon as Luke picked up. 

Luke yawned, and Alex heard a sound in the background that was probably Julie complaining. “Wh’is it?” 

“Band  _ emergency,”  _ he reiterated. “Like, now. I’ll bring coffee.”

“I hate you,” Luke told him seriously. “Sunset curve banding meeting or Julie and the idiots band meeting?” 

Alex paused. “Julie’s way too rational, Sunset Curve band meeting.” 

Luke’s laugh was mildly concerning. “Oh, boy. This should be good. Do you want any donuts? There’s a Krispy Kreme thingy in the foyer.” 

“Oh my god, I love you,” Alex said immediately. “A glazed and a chocolate one for me. I’ll get you a green tea thing.” 

“Yeah, I’m not an idiot, I know your donut taste is boring.” Alex could hear the eye roll. “I’ll meet you at Bobbit and Reg’s?”

“You gotcha,” Alex agreed, considering for a moment whether climbing out of his window was a valid option as he tugged a hoodie on, then quickly cut through the living room, making sure to knock over a cup of paint water on his way. Not onto Willie’s art, that would be awful, but onto the blown up print out of Alex next to it.

As soon as he was out of the dorm building, he rang Bobby. It took three calls before he picked up.

“Alexander, you have three seconds to tell me why the  _ fuck _ I’m awake or I’m telling Reggie you broke his favourite mug,” he said immediately. 

“Willie’s painting me for his art class and I look like an asshole and it’s of a selfie I sent him by accident at Julie’s when Flynn brought out the sixty proof, and it looks really good and  _ he  _ looks really good, and oh my god, Bobbert, if I don’t get to kiss him soon I’m gonna die, but I can’t be the one to apologise because I only did one thing wrong!” 

Bobby exhaled slowly. “Jesus Christ, Xander. Get your ass over here, then. Bring donuts and coffee. And, uh… chips from maccies, for Reg. He had a flare this afternoon, poor fucker’s knackered. Can’t expect him to be awake at this hour without carbs.” 

“Luke is getting donuts, I’m dropping by the twenty four hour Starbucks on my way, and I will order Door Dash for the maccies. Want chicken nuggets?” Alex pulled his phone out to order, placing a Starbucks collection first then going to the door dash app. 

“Do I want chicken nuggets?” Bobby echoed incredulously. “Yes I want fucking chicken nuggets, Jesus. Lucy will want a burger, we might as well have a whole little feast thing.” 

“I’m a physics major, dude, i do not have time to work enough hours to afford to bankroll this,” Alex complained, ordering anyway. 

Bobby snorted. “Your gay panic, your problem.” 

——

“So let me get this straight,” Reggie said for the hundredth time, waving a chip around, eyes half shut and hot water bottle pressed to his sternum as a precaution, even though he insisted he was fine. “You didn’t manage to apologise before Willie decided it was time to organise the kitchen of their new dorm room, took that as an act of war despite the fact that you’re sharing a flat and he therefore has full rights to organise the kitchen as well, and now you’re in a weird prank wat that you would like to end so you can kiss him but you don’t want to apologise for being rude and just explain you were panicking?” 

“Yup.” Alex nodded. “Putting It that way does make it sound dumb, though.” 

“That’s because it is dumb,” the other three said at the same time. 

“... so you’re gonna help me, right?” 

“No shit.”

“Duh.”

“What are we helping you with, again?” 

Alex sighed. “I have a presentation on how the weak nuclear force changes the spin of quarks on Thursday, so nothing until then, but after that I want to… clear the air? And I don’t know how to do that?” 

Luke massaged his temple. You could just apologise? Then they’d know you’re humble, honest, and not going to be an annoying boyfriend who can’t let up.”

“I…” Alex paused. “ _ Fuck,  _ you’re right.”

“If this is what gets you to apologise after three months of the rest of us telling you to just be the bigger person, I’m gonna scream,” Bobby informed him. 

“No, no, but he’s right,” Alex repeated. “Lulu, you’re my favourite, I love you, how the fuck do I say sorry?” 

——

“Jesus, dude, what the fuck are you doing? It’s two am.”

Alex shrugged and nudged the baileys behind the arm of the chair, cradling his coffee to his chest. “Project about W and Z bosons, due at nine.” 

“Which are?” Willie pressed, glancing at the clock as he picked his way through the mess of textbooks, loose leaf paper, Alex’s laptop and a tablet he’d borrowed from Flynn. 

“I- what?” Alex asked, blinked in confusion. Yesterday, Willie had clogged up the sink with glitter, and now he was asking about Alex’s work?

“What are W and Z bosons?” Willie repeated, raising an eyebrow. 

“Okay, don’t take this the wrong way,” Alex said slowly as he finished typing his sentence. “But I haven’t tried to explain this anyone who hasn’t done freshman and sophomore physics, so bare with me.”

Willie’s eyebrows drew together, and he crossed his arms over his chest. “You think I won’t understand what you’re saying because I’m a dumb art student and you’re a hoity-toity physics major with your big words that I’m too busy painting and smoking to understand?” 

Alex felt his cheeks burn and he did his best to stop his eyes drifting down to where Willie’s sleeve strained over his arm as he rushed to clear up the misunderstanding. “No, no, I’m saying I don’t know how to explain this without missing bits that you might not already know and without using hoity-toity physics major words. I’m… my friendship group consists of STEM majors who know most of what I’m talking about and music and business majors who throw bread at me when I mention anything past sixth grade push and pull forces. I’m gonna try, you’ll just… tell me if what I’m saying makes no sense, alright?“

“Okay,” Willie agreed, relaxed a little into the chair. “Mind if I smoke?” 

“Yeah, but only because I have zero tolerance and if I get high halfway through this project, I won’t finish it and then I’ll have a panic attack and that…” Alex shook his head, leafing through his notes until he found the simplest set of summaries. “Drink, though?” 

“Nah.” Willie shook his head. “Not my thing.” 

Alex nodded. “Right, okay. So, you know about protons and electrons and neutrons, right?” 

“Yeah, they’re in the nucleus of atoms, right?” 

“Exactly, yeah.” Alex nodded, biting the end of his pen absently. “So, protons and neutrons are made up of these things called quarks, and there are six types - we call em flavours.”

Willie snorted. “Flavours, seriously?” 

Alex nodded earnestly. “Physicists are weird as fuck, man. Anyway, protons have two up and a down quark, and a neutron has two down and an up quark. If you change the flavour of the quark in the particule, you change the particle. Make sense?” 

“Up and down quark?” Willie asked, shifting until they were curled up on their side and leaning against the arm of the couch. Alex swallowed thickly, ignoring how comfy he looked. “Are they two of the flavours?” 

“Yeah, exactly.” Alex smiled brightly, wondering distantly if he’d look as elegant if he grew his hair out and tied it up like Willie’s, with strands framing his face, or if he’d look like he’d been living in a man cave for three months. “So quarks and electrons are these things called elementary particles, because they can’t be broken down into anything smaller, and bosons are also elementary particles.” 

“Oh, cool. What makes em different?” Willie picked up a couple of notes near the edge of Alex’s explosion of work. 

Alex hummed, pausing to down half of his coffee. “Bosons carry force, and they’re made up of bundles of energy. Photons are bosons, and they carry electromagnetic force, the strong nuclear force - that’s the force that holds neutrons and protons together in the nucleus - is carried by gluons. Theoretically there’s this boson called the graviton that carries the gravitational force, but we haven’t found it yet.”

Willie nodded slowly. “Okay, I think I get that. What are the.. W and Z bosons? Those are the ones this is on, right?” 

“The W and Z bosons carry the weak nuclear force,” Alex explained, shoving down the warm feeling that bubbled up when Willie showed he’d actually been paying attention. “The weak nuclear force changes the flavour of the quarks. The Z boson is a neutrally charged particle and it’s kinda weird, and it’s involved with the weak neutral current, which I can’t find any information on anywhere, but the W boson is charged, and either a negative or a positive W boson is emitted, which is what changes the flavour of the quark. Make sense?” 

Willie held one hand up, forehead creased. “What are the W bosons emitted from?” 

“Oh, from the quark,” Alex said, slapping his forehead lightly. “It’s called beta decay, you know, like beta radiation? So when a proton gets turned into a neutron, an up quark is being turned into a down quark, so a positive W boson is emitted. When a neutron gets turned into a proton, a negative W boson is emitted. Then the bosons decay, and an electron or a positron is produced, along with a neutrino or an anti neutrino. With a positive W boson, it’s a positron and a neutrino, and then with a negative W boson it’s an electron and an antineutrino.”

Willie chewed his lip, eyes scanning over Alex’s notes until they found something. “And a positron is an anti electron? How does that work? What’s a neutrino?” 

Alex grinned and repositioned himself so he was more comfortable. “A neutrino is a neutrally charged lepton, which basically just means that it doesn’t experience the strong nuclear force, but participates in the weak nuclear force equally to an electron, or another charged lepton, like a muon or a tau, but they’re not important. They also experience the electromagnetic force equally to an electron. Antimatter is just produced whenever matter is produced. It’s like… you know Newton’s 3rd Law?” 

“Every action has an equal and opposite reaction?” Willie guessed. 

“Right!” Alex nodded excitedly. “So when matter is created, like in the Big Bang, equal amounts of antimatter is created as well. For some reason there’s less of it in today’s universe, but we don’t know why, but they managed to make it at CERN.” 

“Woah.” Willie blew out a breath, sagging back into the chair. “That’s pretty damn cool.” 

Alex practically beamed at him. “Yeah.”

“So, what’s the actual project on?” They asked, motioning to the array of sheets on the floor. “Or is your explanation the whole thing?” 

“Oh, so my project is about truly neutral particles. The Z boson is an example, and since we’re studying force carriers, that’s what my professor wants me to focus on,” Alex continued, turning his laptop around to show Willie his PowerPoint. 

“That’s cool,” Willie said, then smiled sheepishly. “I have no idea what a truly neutral particle is.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” Alex laughed, clicking through. “It’s… so, there’s this thing, where a particle undergoes this transformation called charge conjugation, where a particle switches with its antiparticle - so, like, where an electron switches to a positron - and a truly neutral particle is where the particle is its own antiparticle. So if a Z boson undergoes charge conjugation, it doesn’t become anything, it’s still a Z boson.” 

“Oh, that  _ is  _ cool.” Willie grinned at him. “Thanks, man. For explaining everything. We… we good now?” 

Alex cleared his throat. “Um. Yeah.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I’m. Sorry, for snapping at you. And then for switching your shampoo with body wash because you rearranged the kitchen. And everything after that.” 

“Me too.” Willie nodded. “Except for stealing your lunch, I enjoyed that a lot.” 

“Oh, fuck off.” Alex stuck his tongue out. “Now shut up or scram, I need to finish this.” 

——

“Guys, I’m in love,” Alex mumbled into Flynn’s shoulder, waiting for them to repeat it to the room before looking up. “Willie let me ramble about physics again. This time we talked about the relationships between life and host planets, and they asked so many questions.”

“Ha!” Reggie crowed, holding a hand out to Nick and Luke. “Pay up fuckers, I told you that was the “cute person let me nerd out” face.”

The two boys reluctantly handed over a couple bills, and Alex made an indignant noise. “The fuck?”

Reggie grinned. “My boyfriend would ramble about the mechanism of hydrogen cyanide in the blood for seven hours if I let him, and I have seen Luke ramble about the ins and outs of different sound booth setups to Julie. I know that look. And I wanted money because there’s a really cool chocolate hamper on sale in Krovelskies and I want it.”

Alex tipped his head in acknowledgement. “That’s fair.” 

“Thank you.” Reggie flashed him finger guns. “So, you’re in love with Willie?” 

Alex made a pathetic whining sound and buried his face back in Flynn’s shoulder. “He’s so pretty.”

“He is,” Nick agreed, playing with Carrie’s hair. “Very pretty.”

“Wait, you know Willie?” Alex, Bobby, Reggie and Luke asked at the same time. 

Nick blinked. “Oh. Yeah. We play lacrosse together? I’ve known him for years. You’ve been pining for months, how has this not come up?.” 

“I’m gonna kill him,” Alex told Flynn faintly, shuffling until his head was in her lap. “I’m gonna team up with Reg and build a freeze Ray, and then I’m gonna kill him. You and Carrie can be Those rich people with a human ice statue.” 

“Aw, thanks, Al.” Carrie saluted him. “I’ve always known there was something missing from the foyer.” 

“No killing Nick,” Julie sighed. “Now you have someone who is friends with Willie, who can help you woo Willie.”

Bobby and Luke choked on their sodas. “You think  _ Al  _ is gonna woo someone?” 

“Hey, I could totally woo someone,” Alex protested, sitting back up. “I can be romantic.” 

“Lex, hon,” Flynn said gently, patting his cheek, “three months ago, you weren’t even willing to apologise to him to make the first move. You really telling me you could actually romantically pursue someone?” 

Alex paused. “...well-”

“I’ll see if he’s into you, and if he says yes, I’ll tell ‘em they gotta make the first move, this is getting ridiculous,” Nick reassured him. “But you do owe me help with my coursework for a month.”

“Done, you’re my absolute favourite person in the world,” Alex promised immediately. “I love you a million times more than anyone in this room, including Reggie.”

Bobby made an offended sound and pulled Reggie closer, but Reggie just nodded. “Yeah, that’s understandable.” 

——

“So, Mr Mercer,” Willie started, kicking the door shut behind him. “A certain son of a certain director and his NBA husband may have told me that you mayhaps have a thing for me.” 

Alex groaned and pulled a cushion over his head. “No, I don’t, go away.” 

“Aw, hotdog,” Willie settled on the arm of the sofa. “Are you sure?” 

“I hate that nickname,” Alex complained, inching the cushion down until he could see Willie. “You know I hate that nickname.” 

“Yeah, but I like reminding myself that you forgot about the cayenne pepper you put in your hotdogs to get revenge on me, and then ate so much that you threw up,” Willie explained. “It brings my soul peace.”

“You don’t deserve soul-peace.” Alex tugged the cushion back up. “You’re a dick.” 

“Yeah, but you’re gay, so that should be your thing, right?” Willie teased. 

Alex sat up quickly, jaw dropped. “I can’t believe you just said that!” 

Willie shrugged. “I’m allowed to, I’m into men, too.” They held an arm out. “Now , c’mere, lunatic.”

“Why am I c’mere-ing?” He asked, pressing himself into Willie’s side anyway. 

“Because Nick says you have a thing for me, and that I have to be very clear about that thing being reciprocated, because you’re a wimp.”

“Hey, I’m not - wait, really?” Alex cut himself off

Willie rolled their eyes. “Bro, I’ve been flirting with you literally since we stopped fighting.” 

“Well, yeah, but we’re queer,” Alex reminded him. “You think I haven’t made out with all my queer friends? Except the lesbians, obviously. Bobby tells me my ass looks good three times a day, flirting is not a good indicator.” 

“Huh.” Willie considered that. “Y’know what, that’s a valid point. However, I have been flirting with you for three months, man, and you have not made out with me once.” 

“You didn’t ask me to!” Alex protested. “I would’ve totally kissed you if you asked me to.” 

“I thought you weren’t interested half the time, because you kept not flirting back, and when I asked you out for a date you said no,” Willie reminded him, booping his nose lightly. 

“You didn’t ask me out for a - ohh, shit. The coffee?” Alex winced and felt his heart plummet into his stomach.

Willie nodded, rolling his eyes in a manner that Alex was 80% sure was fond. “The coffee, bro.” 

“Okay.” Alex exhaled shakily. “So… I’m telling you that… I would be cool with - if you decided, y’know, that you maybe wanted to kiss me, so…” 

“Dork,” Willie muttered, but cradled his cheek anyways, pausing a centimetre away, eyes scanning Alex’s face. “Such a fuckin’ dork,” he echoed, before pressing his lips to Alex’s. 

——

“So let me run this bi you one last time,” Bobby said, after what was probably his eighth or ninth shot. His comprehension was always…. questionable after a couple. So were his puns. He paused to obligingly fist bump Reggie and Julie, then opened his mouth.

Alex beat him to it. “Bobert, I love you to the moon and back, but if you say you need to ace-ess the situation, I’m going to kill you.” 

Willie made a wounded sound, and looked up at Alex with pleading eyes. “Aw, babe, c’mon. Aces are few and far between. There’s, like, a seven point seven percent chance of finding one, let us live out our best ace bromance.” 

“I - what..”

Reggie clearly got it, because he started laughing, but when no one else caught on, he sighed, propping himself up against Bobby. “Really? Alexa, you’re a fucking physics major, it’s a maths joke. There are four aces in a deck of fifty two, four over fifty two is seven point six nine, or, seven point seven. He was making a card joke and a maths joke and an asexual joke all in one go.” 

“I love him,” Bobby breathed, pressing a kiss to Reggie’s hair then resting his cheek on his head. “Willie, if you ever get sick of Alex being weird and physics-y, you can totally join me and Reg, we’re sensible.” 

“You study fucking biochem,” Alex protested. “Biology is literally full of shit, and chemistry explains  _ everything  _ wrong! Tell me what an anode is, Bobbers, tell me what a fucking anode is!”

“It’s the electrode that reduces,” Bobby insisted, crossing his arms over his chest. “Releases electrons. Wanna talk to me about moles? We can go right the fuck now, Lex Luther, I’m so down, what with your shitty ideal gas equation.” 

“Woah, I don’t care about physics or chemistry!” Willie called, holding both hands up. “I’m an  _ art major.  _ I throw paint at things. I do not care about the definition of an anode, I’m very much into Alex, Bobby, you and Reggie are cute, but I’m a blonds kinda person.” 

“Hey, you do more than that, babe,” Alex reminded them gently. “None of us could do anything like what you can do.” 

“That’s true,” Willie agreed, winking at Julie. “You were all terrible at that painting thing.” 

Nick pulled a face. “I think mine was pretty good, actually, Will-o.”

Carrie rolled her eyes. “As if.” 

“It was!” Nick insisted, tying off a braid in Julie’s hair. “I thought I drew beautiful cover art for Triple Threat.”

“Triple threat doesn’t even exist, Nickster,” Luke reminded him. “We got to Jules before Flynn and Carrie, remember?” 

“We can always steal her back,” Flynn said, inspecting her nails. “Julie’s as bi as they come, and me and Care-bear are  _ way  _ prettier than you.” 

Alex snorted, and Willie leaned up, pressing a kiss to his jaw. “Are they always like this?” They whispered. “Because if so, I love ‘em.”

“Oh yeah.” Alex nodded and pulled him closer as Bobby threw a tennis ball at Carrie . “They literally never stop. They’re amazing.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are much appreciated if you enjoyed :)))


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